Supreme Court Grants Cert and Rules for Businesses in Growing Percentage of Cases

The Roberts court is accepting more businesses cases and ruling more often for business interests, in percentage terms.

The Roberts court has ruled for business interests 61 percent of the time during its five terms, while the Rehnquist court sided with business 46 percent of the time in its last five years, the New York Times reports.

The findings are part of a study by Northwestern law professor Lee Epstein, University of Chicago economist William Landes, and Judge Richard Posner of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals based in Chicago.

Last term, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce filed briefs supporting business interests in 16 cases, and in 13 of the cases, the Supreme Court ruled for the same side supported by the chamber.

The story also cites a study (PDF) by the Constitutional Accountability Center that found the Roberts court ruled in favor of positions advanced by the Chamber of Commerce 68 percent of the time, while the Rehnquist court favored chamber positions 56 percent of the time in its last 11 years.

According to the Times, the Roberts court’s interest in business issues “has risen along with the emergence of a breed of lawyers specializing in Supreme Court advocacy, many of them veterans of the United States solicitor general’s office, which represents the federal government in the court.”